Born in York on the 9th of July 1932 Fred Suddaby was the second Fred Suddaby to serve in The 4th Hussars. His father served with the Regiment from 1927 to 1948 and was taken prisoner in Greece with the rank of RSM.
Young Fred joined the Army in February 1948 at the age of 16.1/2 and did his initial training with The 14/20th Hussars. He sailed to the Far East to join The 4th Hussars (as a band boy) in Malaya in July 1949.
On attaining the age of 17.1/2 he transferred to the ranks and trained as a Driver/Mechanic and served with Recce Troop at Ipoh. He later attended a course and qualified as a Veh/Mechanic ‘A’.
The Regiment returned to the UK (Tidworth) in December 1951 and Fred went on permanent attachment to The 4th Hussars LAD REME as a fitter. This did not last very long and in August he returned to duty with the Regiment, was promoted L/Cpl and attended a D & M Instructors Course at Bovington. He was then promoted to full Corporal.
On the move once more the Regiment was posted to BAOR (Hohne) where Fred served with ‘B’ Squadron until posted to the Shropshire Yeomanry TA as a D & M Instructor in the rank of Cpl in July 1955. He purchased his discharge and left the Army on the 4th of May 1956 having served just over six years.
In civilian life, I gather he had several jobs which included Service Engineer, Garage Foreman and also ran a Post Office/Shop and Garage for some six years. He finally worked for a Company called Echo Tech Metal Reclamation for about ten years until retirement.
During this period he had joined the TA in 1962 and served in a variety of Units which included the R.Signals, R. Engineers, Staffordshire Yeomanry and The Queen’s Own Mercian Yeomanry, finishing his TA Service in July 1973 in the rank of Sgt.
Apart from the TA Fred’s hobbies were guns.
He was a keen member of a shooting club (he had a collection of small arms) and he made models of military vehicles.
Fred Suddaby died on the 20th of January 2009 aged 77 after a long period of ill health and was often confined to a wheelchair.
